For a weekend that held so much promise, this one has sure failed to deliver. Yesterday’s weird inability to wake up morphed into a crushing headache that seemed to grow stronger rather than weaker when I finally caved and popped some pills. Today I’m completely limp, shaky and off balance and generally blah. So rather than do anything responsible or important, I created a nest for myself on the couch and planned to have as boring a day as possible.<\/p>\n
My plans were thwarted. I was idly in the middle reading my Expanded Diary (by which I mean a combination of tradition diary, blog posts, and correspondences with friends) from a year ago when there was a banging on my door.<\/p>\n
That never happens. I live in an apartment building that seems to firmly believe that the best way to get along with neighbors is to deliberately ignore the fact that you have neighbors.<\/p>\n
I had only barely disentangled myself from my couch nest when the banging was repeated.<\/p>\n
The only other times I’ve heard that kind of knocking here were when my psychotic (and drunk) former building manager came to accuse me of deliberately flooding her apartment, and when my former neighbor (also drunk) thought I might have called the cops on her. I reminded myself that no heavy drinkers live here any more and that I generally get along with all my neighbors now, called “I’m coming,” and wobbled my way over to the door.<\/p>\n
Here I was faced with a worried looking nurse and a completely naked, grinning 3-year-old girl. The nurse held a cell phone out as if it explained her presence entirely and asked if she could use my phone. I blinked at her. I blinked at her cell phone. I invited her in. How scary could a nurse with a naked 3-year-old be?<\/p>\n
As she came in she explained that her daughter (my neighbor, and the mother of the toddler) was in a diabetic coma and that she needed to call an ambulance, which she proceeded to do, explaining to the 911 operator that she couldn’t stay on the line because she was on a neighbor’s phone because she couldn’t figure out how to make her daughter’s cell phone place a call.<\/p>\n
There are just so many layers of helplessness here. There’s my neighbor, who has to deal with being a single mother of two toddlers who are too young to be able to check on her and call help when necessary. And my neighbor’s daughters, who stripped themselves naked and decided to draw a bath since their mom wasn’t drawing one for them (and ended up flooding not only their own bathroom but their downstairs neighbor’s as well). And my neighbor’s mother who couldn’t make a phone dial when she really needed it. And here I am, 15 feet away from the apartment, and I had no idea.<\/p>\n
When she’s better, maybe I’ll see if she and her mother want me to be part of their system. I could surely go knock on her door if her mother can’t get her to answer the phone. I don’t want anything happening to her like what happened to my cousin last spring.<\/p>\n
I’m also not superstitious, but wow… that apartment seems to be cursed. First there was out-of-control Party Girl. Then there was the guy that died of alcohol poisoning right there across the hall from me. And now this. In an apartment building that is otherwise blindingly boring, this begins to stand out as quite a pattern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For a weekend that held so much promise, this one has sure failed to deliver. Yesterday’s weird inability to wake up morphed into a crushing headache that seemed to grow stronger rather than weaker when I finally caved and popped some pills. Today I’m completely limp, shaky and off balance and generally blah. So rather … Continue reading Of Nothingness, Followed by Drama<\/span>